How the Florinsekt Came to Be

How the Florinsekt Came to Be

This is one of the tales collected by Malkin and Millicent Boffleblossom during their time in E’ma Thalas. Millicent loved the tale, but Malkin had some doubts as to its authenticity. He claimed that the elf who told the story made it up on the spot, but Millicent swears she heard the tale from others in the community as well.

In the land of Tir Na Nog, where the light never ceased to shine, there lived a tiny pixie by the name of Frost Sparkle. Now Frost Sparkle was a frost fairy that gloried in touching the autumn leaves and lacing them with delicate veils of ice. Each year she looked forward to the time when the Winter Queen would tell her it was time to go to work, but each year it seemed to take longer and longer for the winter season to come.

Well, Frost Sparkle wasn’t the most patient of pixies, and she took to asking the Winter Queen every day if it was time to go to frost the leaves. And each day the Winter Queen said, “Not yet, Frost Sparkle, but very soon.”

Each time she heard this, Frost Sparkle would stomp her foot and ask, “Why can’t we go today?”

But the Winter Queen simply shook her head and smiled and sent Frost Sparkle on her way.

After days and days of this, as the weather gradually cooled and the autumn pixies took to painting the leaves in the reds, yellows, and browns of fall, Frost Sparkle’s patience ran out. She watched the autumn pixies flit among the leaves with their paints and magics, and she ached to go behind them and add her own sparkle to their work. She hopped from one foot to the other and beat her wings as fast as she could.

Finally, she could wait no longer, and she reached out a tiny finger and touched the edge of a leaf. Immediately, it was covered with a delicate lace of frost, and the autumn pixies cried out in anger. Their cries attracted the attention of the Autumn Queen, and she hurried to see what had happened. When the autumn pixies told her what Frost Sparkle had done, the Autumn Queen turned to the pixie.

“That was wrong of you, Frost Sparkle. I will have to speak with the Winter Queen about this.” Her face turned red, and fire appeared in her eyes. It was against the laws of the land of fairy for pixies to work in the wrong season.

Frost Sparkle’s little heart beat hard in her chest, for she knew the Winter Queen would punish her most harshly. With a cry of despair, Frost Sparkle jumped into the air and flew as fast as she could to a deserted part of the forest.

Frost Sparkle plopped onto a spot of moss and pulled her knees up to her chin. Her wings beat her agitation, and she squeezed her legs as tightly as she could. She wanted to work. She wanted to create. She couldn’t stand this waiting! She screamed as loud as her little voice would go, and she beat her fists on the moss bed and stomped her tiny feet. And when she was all spent, she lay down and cried.

Her cries did not go unnoticed. A beetle, wisest among the insects, heard her shrieks and came to see what all the fuss was about.

Frost Sparkle sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes. She told the beetle what she’d done and that the Winter Queen would punish her. The beetle took pity on the poor pixie, for he knew the wrath of the Winter Queen.

“I can help you,” he said.

Frost Sparkle climbed to her feet and bowed to him. “Please, Sir Beetle.”

The beetle nodded once and led Frost Sparkle deep into the forest. She shivered as she made her way through dense brush and across thick vines. It was dark here, much darker than she’d ever seen, and Frost Sparkle was frightened.

At last the beetle stopped beside a small flower, one with bright red petals and a silver center. Frost Sparkle looked at the flower then back to the beetle.

“You will become one with the flower,” he said. “That way the Winter Queen cannot punish you.”

Frost Sparkle tilted her head to the side and examined the flower. It seemed to droop in the darkness, as if it were sad. She looked back at the beetle, who fluttered his wings. “Why does the flower need me?”

“The flower cannot grow here,” the beetle said. “It is too dark. If you join with the flower, you will be able to take it into the light.”

This made sense to Frost Sparkle, so she agreed. The beetle flapped his wings and lifted into the air. A golden nimbus of magic surrounded him, and Frost Sparkle stared in awe at his beauty. He lifted his front leg and sent the magic into Frost Sparkle. It surrounded her and pulled at her, and she cried out from the pain. Her wings stretched along the petals of the flower, and her head shrunk until it just fit the center. Her arms became one with the calyx, and her legs joined the stem.

When next she knew, Frost Sparkle was one with the red-petaled flower. She stretched her wings, now petals, and pulled with her feet, now the stem, to lift the flower from its roots. She spun and spun until she was high above the trees. The flower took over from there and stretched its leaves to catch the light of Tir Na Nog. Frost Sparkle gloried in its joy and directed the flower throughout the land to see the sights and feel the light.

And from that day on, the flying flower, part pixie/part flower was known as the florinsekt, which meant flower bug, and it was one of the few small creatures of Tir Na Nog that survived the Catastrophe.